


Friendly Correspondence

by Predatrix



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 10:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Predatrix/pseuds/Predatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had fun with translating one of Nelja's short fics from French. Although I haven't done any French since I left school, the fact that this was a very short epistolary fic made it slightly less intimidating. And I like writing sarcasm, and particularly these characters!</p>
<p>It's a fairly free translation. I started with Google Translate (to attempt to get the actual meanings straight) and then had fun trying to keep it in voice with a) idiomatic English, b) the Doctor, c) the Master, and d) sarcasm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly Correspondence

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Aimable correspondance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/538520) by [Nelja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nelja/pseuds/Nelja). 



My dear Doctor,

I have two pieces of good news to announce to you.

The good news for you is that the paper this letter is printed on is not infused with a deadly poison. I did consider it, but the idea lacked elegance, and I decided you would spend at least as much time running a fruitless deep chemical analysis if I did not take the trouble of wasting the poison.

The good news for me is that I am now all set to become the head of the Mykrian government. I will brook no interference, and have in fact taken the liberty of transmitting a signal that will immobilise the poor heap of scrap that you are pleased to call a TARDIS. I have no doubt that it will take you no more than a few days to repair it (or rather to return it to its usual state of disrepair), but by that time I shall already have taken possession of the Mykrian fleet and consequently this planet.

Do not trouble yourself to put off your friends from UNIT, although their dismay at this news will be but poorly recompensed by the fact that I thought of them. I am sure they must be able to deploy some primitive weapons whose uselessness I shall be happy to demonstrate.

Yours sincerely,

The Master, future ruler of the universe

 

 

Dear Master,

Politeness requires that I thank you for your interesting letter. As you probably already know, no Mykrian vessel has attacked Earth in the past few days. On the contrary, when I turned my attention to Mykrian affairs, I discovered that there was a good deal of talk about the arrest of a usurper.

This did not entirely surprise me. Although Mykra might well be your kind of military dictatorship, you have committed some gross errors in strategy. In particular, the Mykrians do not put their trust in Time Lords, and I have only added to this mistrust by escaping from their prison planet today.

You will understand that I then seized the opportunity this offered to reply to you at a fixed address. After all, you taunted me while I was exiled on Earth, and I can do no less than return the favour. So let me remind you once again that violence only begets more violence--and probably a few uncomfortable jail cells into the bargain!

If you have managed to read this far without throwing down the letter with an exclamation of disgust, do allow me to boast once again about the ease of my escape on the presumed day of my execution. A simple reversal of the polarity of the neutron flow works wonders in the case of electronic handcuffs.

(Sorry about that, old chap!)

Waiting with some interest for our next meeting,

 

The Doctor


End file.
